N.J. Jury Clears Hotel For Guest Brain Damaged In Pool Incident

A New Jersey jury had found that a Ramada Inn wasn’t liable for an incident that left a hotel guest brain damaged when he dove in a swimming pool to save his daughter from drowning, according to The Record of North Jersey.

In Superior Court in Hackensack Thursday, a jury found in favor of Ratan R. Park LLC, which owns the Ramada in Rochelle Park, N.J. The jury verdict followed a trial on a lawsuit brought by the family of Robert Smith of Georgia, who suffered brain damage when he nearly drowned trying to rescue his 11-year-old daughter Brianna on the Fourth of July 2009.

The suit had alleged that because of the hotel’s negligence in terms of its pool, Smith is in a nursing home and needs special care, according to The Record.

Smith and Brianna had been in the hotel pool when the daughter wandered into the deep end, which the plaintiffs’ attorney contended had not been properly marked to warn swimmers. Smith was able to push Brianna to the side of the pool, and she was pulled out to safety.

But Smith, who like his daughter can’t swim, was found unconscious at the pool’s bottom, The Record reported.

The hotel’s attorney had told the jury that both Smith and his daughter went into the pool knowing that they couldn’t swim, and should have exercised reasonable care, according to The Record.

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